There are 15 Carousel shows in '68, when the venue was under that name. That's a lot, but we only have tapes from 8 of them. These shows were billed as the Grand Reopening, after the Dead (and other bands) took over management for a brief experiment, apparently spearheaded by the Airplane (and starting 2/14). This was during a sort of falling out with BGP (and also while not playing for Helms). Kreutzmann says he has no recollection of them doing so (while admitting he was not paying attention). For a moment this home base looked like the ticket for the young peninsular bands. It became BGP's Fillmore West in August. This run was taped for the mixed studio/live Anthem, and it's possible some of this night is in there somewhere. We are missing the previous five shows. Two shows earlier was Constanten's first. The previous night was cut up for the LP. The Airplane played before each of the sets, and the show was competing with Traffic, down the street at The Fillmore (though they were not well known at the time in the U.S.).

First Set. The show starts with the best part, a classic '68 Dark Star. It's the standard early version perhaps, but very tight. The OFF has a slightly different mix, but the SBD has a better image, albeit with some brief distortion in places. China Cat has changed, now starting in the old key and modulating to the new key, from whence it will start in '69. The abrupt key change/drop into The Eleven is a feature of endless rehearsals at the time, though in the rest there is some relative vamping. Everything refreshes with Pig at the mic for a notable School Girl.

Second Set. Unfortunately the beginning of Morning Dew is clipped, missing 10secs or so, but it's a great version of the '68 format. The ending seems abrupt! During the tuning they briefly play Offenbach's Orphée aux Enfers - Overture: Galop Infernal. The rest is standard '68 fare. We are missing most of the final Cryptical as well as about the first 1min40sec of Alligator. It has a brief Darkness Jam @5:40 [so-called; this was before the Youngbloods!], and a short cut @8:58. There's a reel flip at the end of Caution, missing the seg into, and first couple mins of, Feedback. This ended with smoke bombs & sparklers. In his book, Phil says this was the run where he stopped playing behind Jer, but Jer was angered afterward and they tussled ("You play motherfucker!"). It was only about 20secs. I don't hear it in this show (not counting obvious drum breaks) but it could have been the night before. "Jerry was normally such a sweetheart that I was shocked".

1st Set:  B+
2nd Set: C+
Overall = 3¾ stars

Highlights:
Dark Star – standard but so very tight
Good Morning, Little School Girl – Pig at his most classic
Morning Dew – great example of '68 format

SOURCES: The 156159_sbd_latvala is the newest mastering/transfer. It's the longest and restores the tunings. Like miller_109944 it has the channels switched and needs -1% pitch correction for China Cat>Eleven, and +1% for the slightly slow Other One. The vernon_9388 runs slightly slow and is missing Morning Dew. Dark Star through The Eleven are on So Many Roads. The channels are switched and it runs slightly slow, needing +1% correction.

Fine early '68 show, nice clear recording.

Speaking of that drum segue, thank goodness Mr. Miller had the good sense not to segregate each portion of TIFTOO onto it's own separate track as so many others do ("Cryptical, Drums, TOO, Cryptical"). What a buzz kill!

No.

2/14/68 has the jam where Phil stops playing.

They made it to the end of the set here. It's not the Anthem tape.

But man, does this ever sound great!

Very, very stong show with great sound. Aside from a vicious cut in TIFTOO, this could be another Road Trips. Also, if I'm not mistaken, this is the first time the boys used a drum segue between Cryptical and The Other One.

What's not too like from March 1968! Kazoos at the start of feedback!
Peace, Bob

The Dead didn't seem to put on any bad shows this year; always high energy and axploratory.
The highlight for me was the Alligator > Caution. Excellent China Cat as well.
Again, Chalie Miller has worked his magic.